‘It is in principle possible to constitute a limitation fund under the International Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976, scheduled to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, by means of a guarantee in the form of a letter of undertaking provided by a protection and indemnity club.’

‘This week, Chris Grayling and the Court of Justice go head to head over the domestic status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, while the ghost of Winston Churchill comes back to haunt the “United States of Europe” debate. Meanwhile, Theresa May’s plans to deprive terrorist suspects of their British citizenship are under fire, while calls for press accountability are repeated.’

‘Confusion abounds about the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights following Mr Justice Mostyn’s recent judgment in R (AB) v Home Secretary (in which he appeared to say the Charter puts into UK law all sorts of new rights British governments had wanted to exclude) and Tuesday’s reaction by the Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling (who, it’s reported, is urgently trying to clarify whether the Charter ”applies in the UK”).’

“A landmark reform of press regulation, enshrined in a royal charter, was finally sealed by the privy council on Wednesday [30th October] in a brief private ceremony, hours after the high court had quickly dismissed a last-minute legal attempt to block it by most
newspaper groups.”

“A group of national newspaper publishers have launched a legal challenge to the government’s plans for press regulation, claiming that ‘irrational’ ministers have failed to apply ‘rigorous standards of consultation’ over plans for a new watchdog.”

“The editor of the Times yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that a group of the country’s bestselling titles will press ahead and set up their own regulator without seeking government approval, after ministers formally rejected a Fleet Street proposal for a new system of oversight.”

“Plans on how to regulate the press industry have been delayed until later this month after a difficult meeting of the key players rejected the regulatory plans proposed by the industry but also could not agree whether to back the royal charter passed by parliament.”

“Some of the most prominent victims of phone-hacking have written to the culture secretary, Maria Miller, urging her to reject the royal charter proposed by the press industry, saying that it is unacceptable for ‘those responsible for the damage to our lives and the lives of others [to] seek to shrug off responsibility and once again write their own rulebook.’ ”

“A key adviser to the Leveson report, the civil rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, has hit out against politicians and newspaper barons, accusing them of letting down the public over promises to set up a new press watchdog.”

“The Privy Council, which will now be responsible for issuing a royal charter setting up a panel to vet the independence of a new press regulator, started licensing books in 1538. In 1557 a royal charter gave the members of the Stationers’ Company a monopoly of printing. In 1588 the anti-episcopal Marprelate Tracts (one of whose authors, John Penry, was executed for publishing them) provoked a system of press licensing which survived in one form or another, though with diminishing effect, until the last decade of the 17th century.”

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